Home!

I'm back home after a 5 week trip to Italy and France. What an adventure I've had! This was a journey of healing after the death of my father and a journey for creativity. I plein air painted with my friend Deena Altman for about 8 days along the Italian Riviera and southern France. We stuck to a schedule to produce 2 paintings a day. Most of these are still not finished.....but it gives you an idea for the composition. Here are the Italian paintings and some details on the sites....I'll post the southern France portion soon! 
Enjoy! 

 We started our painting journey in Santa Margerita Ligure along the Riviera coast of Italy. This was a charming town with colorful buildings and the best Gelato! This was a journal painting...we painted along the boardwalk before dinner.

Deena and I took a ferry to Portofino to paint for the day. We tried to avoid the tourists and found this wonderful sculpture garden tucked into the cliff. Great views for us!

and of course one must have lunch along the boardwalk.....sigh.....

after lunch we hiked up the hill a bit and found this lovely church to paint....the stripes started to drive us nuts.....but we persevered!

 Deena's painting...love the wavy steps! 

The next day we trekked to Villa Durazzo, a magnificent home on the hill in Santa Margherita

Deena's painting turned out wonderful and imaginative...my painting...well....it had a few "issues"

so....one must stop and take a break to regroup...and prepare for the next painting! 

we walked to the front of the mansion to paint the view looking out over the water.....I was much happier with this one....

The next day we drove to Rapallo, another magnificent small town with amazing history. We took the Rapallo Funivia Montallegro to the top of the mountain to paint. When you arrive you can walk around the Basilica to a charming hotel called Casa del Pellegrino. We spent most of the day painting and eating here....what's the point of leaving when you have everything you need?